Day: August 25, 2021

Indonesia is holding a Bahamas-flagged oil tanker, its Bangladeshi captain and 18 other crew members who are suspected of stealing nearly 300,000 barrels of crude oil from Cambodia, authorities said Wednesday.
The 600-foot ship, the M.T. Strovolos, was illegally anchored off Sumatra with its identification system turned off when authorities seized it on July 27, three days after Phnom Penh issued an Interpol red notice about the alleged theft, an Indonesian Navy official said.
An Indonesian warship, the KRI John Lie-358, intercepted the oil tanker near the Anambas Islands in the Riau Islands province after the Strovolos had sailed into Indonesian waters in the South China Sea without permission, said Rear Adm. Arsyad Abdullah, commander of Naval Fleet Command 1.
“The success in seizing the tanker is thanks to cooperation among nations in Southeast Asia, and especially the coordination between the Indonesian Navy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said in a statement released by the navy.
“The Navy will not hesitate to take action against all forms of violations that occur in the waters in Indonesian national jurisdictions.”
Arsyad said the operation followed an Interpol red notice that had been requested by Cambodia and forwarded to Indonesian authorities.
It was not immediately clear why the Indonesian Navy waited nearly a month until publicizing the news about the seizure of the ship and its crew. The tanker had sailed into Indonesian waters from Thailand, the navy said.
The nineteen crewmembers – 13 Indians, three Bangladeshis and three from Myanmar – were detained and later taken to a port on nearby Batam Island as part of an investigation, the admiral said.
The Bangladeshi captain has been named a suspect for allegedly anchoring in the Indonesian territorial sea without a permit and could face a year in prison, or a fine of up to 200 million rupiah (U.S. $13,865) if found guilty, the navy statement said.
“The case has been submitted by the Navy investigators to the Batam prosecutor’s office,” Arsyad said.
KrisEnergy, a troubled Singapore-based oil and gas company, had rented the tanker-ship for oil storage as part of Cambodia’s recent bid to extract its own petroleum, the AFP news agency reported, citing authorities.
The firm had filed for liquidation in June but was unable to pay the tanker’s crew, authorities said, according to the AFP report.
“The company … reported to our government that the tanker stole the oil. There are some 290,000 barrels of crude” aboard, AFP quoted Cheap Suor, director-general of petroleum at the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy, as saying.
“(But) the tanker said KrisEnergy owed it money.”
In May, Indonesia released two oil-tanker captains from China and Iran as well as their vessels and crews, days after a court handed suspended sentences of one year each for carrying out an unauthorized ship-to-ship petroleum transfer in waters off West Kalimantan on Borneo Island.
Chinese national Chen Yo Qun, captain of the Panama-flagged MT Freya, and Mehdi Monghasemjahromi, skipper of the Iranian-flagged MT Horse, were found guilty of violating Indonesia’s navigational rules by conducting an oil transfer at sea without a permit in late January.
After the January incident, Aan Kurnia, the chief of Indonesia’s coast guard (Bakamla), called for tougher laws against navigational violations in Indonesian waters.
All foreign vessels, including warships, have the right of passage as long as they transit continuously and do not pose a security threat.
Indonesia requires all ships passing through archipelagic waters to activate their automatic identification systems, or report any damage to those systems. Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is the only nation that has designated archipelagic sea lanes.

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris launched the Hanoi-based Southeast Asian office of America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, saying Washington’s alliances in the region aimed to mutually advance people’s health and security.
The regional CDC hub is designed to enhance health cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), officials said, at a time when countries in the bloc are reeling from soaring numbers of COVID-19 infections driven by the highly contagious Delta strain.
“Our partnerships in Southeast Asia are of mutual importance to the health of our people, the strength of our economies, and our collective security,” Harris said on Twitter during her visit to Vietnam, as part of her first official tour of Southeast Asia, which earlier took the vice president to Singapore.
Harris is the most senior official of the new Biden administration to travel to Southeast Asia to date. The regional CDC office was first announced by the Trump administration last September.
“The CDC office will advance global health security by maintaining a sustainable presence in the region, enabling a rapid and effective response to health threats – wherever they occur – and reinforcing CDC’s core mission of protecting Americans,” the White House said in a news release about the vice president’s trip to Hanoi.
Harris also announced an additional 1 million coronavirus vaccine doses for Vietnam, taking Washington’s total donation to the country to 6 million. Washington will also provide U.S. $23 million to help Vietnam boost access to vaccines.
Vietnam’s deputy prime minister and health ministers from ASEAN members and Papua New Guinea watched as Harris inaugurated the CDC office in Hanoi, the White House said.
The CDC, meanwhile, has been in Southeast Asia for a long time, Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director, said in a statement. Walensky and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra were with Harris in Vietnam.
“Our longstanding partnership with the countries of the ASEAN [region has strengthened public health laboratories, emergency operations centers, surveillance systems – all tools that are being called upon during the current pandemic,” Walensky said.
Vaccine rivalry
On the eve of Harris’ visit, China meanwhile said it would provide another 2 million doses of vaccines to Vietnam, taking Beijing’s total donation to Hanoi to 2.5 million doses.
A Sino-American strategic, diplomatic and economic rivalry between the two superpowers is playing out in ASEAN nations over coronavirus vaccine deliveries as well as the disputed South China Sea.
Before the donation to Vietnam that was announced Wednesday, Washington said it had so far donated more than 23 million vaccine doses and over $158 million in health and humanitarian assistance to the ASEAN countries.
Beijing, by contrast, has donated far fewer doses to members of the regional bloc than has Washington.
China has donated around 17 million doses – including the latest 2 million to Vietnam – to ASEAN countries, according to a total provided on the website of Bridge Consulting, a Beijing-based research firm.
Back in June, days after Washington said that its vaccine donations and pandemic aid came with “no strings attached,” Beijing said the same.
But as Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, said on Aug. 17 there are “no strings attached to China’s” donation of COVID-19 vaccines to the country, “except that their boats are there.”
Duterte was referring to the presence of Chinese vessels in Philippine waters of the contested South China Sea, which Beijing claims most of, in contravention of an international tribunal’s 2016 award.
Washington, on the other hand, may even “agree to transfer IP [intellectual property] so Vietnam can produce vaccines,” Carlyle Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, told Radio Free Asia (RFA), with which BenarNews is affiliated.
Close to ‘red line’
Health-care systems across the region are being stretched because of spikes in coronavirus infections stemming from the Delta strain, experts warn.
The Western Pacific accounted for 10 percent of new cases globally, Dr. Takleshi Kasai, the Manila-based regional head of the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday. The U.N. health agency’s Western Pacific office covers 37 countries, including the whole of Southeast Asia.
“In some places, surges are pushing health systems dangerously close to what we call ‘the red line’ – where the number of critical cases exceeds ICU capacity, and hospitals can no longer provide the care that people need,” Kasai told a virtual news conference.
“[T]he Delta variant is now a real threat – which is testing the capacity of even the strongest public health systems in our region.”
For instance, quarantine centers in the Vietnam’s southern Binh Duong province are filled beyond capacity, with local authorities instructing patients not yet showing symptoms to quarantine at home, according to a report by RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
On Monday, Vietnam placed Ho Chi Minh City, its second largest city, under strict lockdown measures through September. Vietnam recorded 354,355 cases of COVID-19 from April 27, the first day of the fourth wave of coronavirus outbreak in the country, to Aug. 23.
Neighboring Laos and Cambodia also saw the number of infections climb this week.
In Manila, meanwhile, many healthcare providers have been forced to turn away patients, with the state-run Philippine General Hospital, which caters to the poor, announcing on Tuesday that it had been overwhelmed and would stop accepting coronavirus cases temporarily.
Already, 73 percent of all intensive care units in Manila’s 332 hospitals were already occupied, the health department said. Last Friday, the Philippines reported 17,231 new infections – a record.
Thailand last week breached one million COVD-19 cases, while Malaysia has recently, reported record new infections on several days – on Aug. 20 it reported 23,564 cases, the highest since the pandemic began.
Indonesia’s COVID-19 daily caseload has dropped lately. But as of Aug. 13, more than a quarter of the country’s total infections since the pandemic began early last year were recorded in the four weeks prior.
Southeast Asia’s largest and most populous country hit a peak of more than 56,000 new infections on July 15, crossing 3 million total infections a week later.

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036

Jailed union leader Rong Chhun has urged his supporters to continue to fight injustice in Cambodia despite government intimidation and vowed to return to his work as a human rights campaigner upon his releas, in one of his first statements since he was sentenced to prison for “incitement” last week.
On Aug. 18, a court in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh sentenced Rong Chhun, who is also a member of the Cambodia Watchdog Council (CWC) umbrella NGO of unions representing teachers, workers, farmers, and students, to two years in jail for his criticism of the government’s handling of a longstanding border dispute with neighboring Vietnam.
Rong Chhun was jailed at Prey Sar Prison on Aug. 1, 2020, a day after his arrest for claiming the government has allowed Vietnam to encroach on Cambodian farmland along the border.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court also ordered Rong Chhun to pay 2 million riels (U.S. $490) in fines, in addition to serving the maximum two-year prison term for his charge of “incitement to commit a felony” in violation of Article 495 of Cambodia’s penal code.
The court sentenced two other activists, Sar Kanika and Tun Nimol, each to serve 20 months in jail and pay the same fine. The court also ordered the three activists to pay about 400,000 riels (U.S. $100) in compensation to the Cambodia Border Affairs Committee.
On Wednesday, Ouk Chhayavy, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, told RFA’s Khmer Service that Rong Chhun called her from his cell on Aug. 23, urging his fellow activists not to abandon their fight for freedom and social justice, despite the government’s use of the courts to intimidate them.
“He doesn’t want us to ignore any unjust actions and stop making demands because of intimidation,” she said. “He said he wants us to be strong.”
She said Rong Chhun told her he will “be out of jail within 11 months” and will “return to lead social and human rights work,” as he had done prior to his arrest.
In response to Rong Chhun’s statement, ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) spokesman Sok Ey San told RFA that Cambodians already enjoy their full freedoms and “there is no need to demand more,” adding that the union leader’s statement “smacks of incitement.”
“We should demand something that we don’t have, but we currently enjoy full freedom,” he said.
“[Most people] have been using it correctly except for a small group who don’t like it. Why should we demand more? Such a demand is yet another form of incitement.”
But Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and Students Secretary General Kean Ponlok welcomed Rong Chhun’s statement, saying the activist always “puts the national interest ahead of his own, even when he is in jail.”
“He is a true nationalist who has sacrificed himself for the national interest,” he said.
“It is a good thing for [him] to appeal to youths and activists not to be intimidated in their protests and fight against social injustice.”
UN experts slam ruling
On Tuesday, Vitit Muntarbhorn, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, slammed authorities for convicting Rong Chhun and his supporters, calling the prison terms and fines “neither justified nor proportionate.”
“I am extremely alarmed that the court convicted the three human rights defenders for acts that are protected by their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, rights guaranteed by Cambodian and international law,” he said in a statement.
Mary Lawlor, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said “human rights defenders should never be arrested, detained or convicted for their efforts to protect human rights of others.”
“We are seriously concerned that the Cambodian government uses the vaguely-worded Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code against ‘incitement to create felony’ to crack down on dissent and to stifle free expression,” the experts said, calling for an end to the intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders.
Threat of deportation
Meanwhile, activists with the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) who are seeking political asylum in Thailand due to charges they say are politically motivated expressed concern Wednesday that they will be forcibly deported to face prosecution following a senior Cambodian official’s request to his counterpart.
On Monday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s advisor and Ministry of Tourism Secretary of State Sok Sokretya asked Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society Chaiwut Thanakanusorn to help prevent opposition party activists from using social media in Thailand to attack the Cambodian government.
In a comment posted to his Facebook account, Sok Sokretya also requested the Thai official to stop “fake news” that might affect the two countries’ relationship.
Neang Sokhun, an activist who was jailed and is currently seeking asylum in Thailand, told RFA that the request is yet another sign that his security and that of his fellow CNRP rights campaigners might be compromised. He urged NGOs to monitor the situation, saying the government might seek their deportations.
“Even though I am afraid, we will continue our mission for democracy and freedom for Cambodians,” he said.
Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017, marking the beginning of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for the CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament in the country’s July 2018 general election.
Another activist in Thailand, Voeun Samnang, said he is afraid that Hun Sen’s government will “hire hitmen” to harm them, but vowed to continue broadcasting information about its failures with other CNRP asylum seekers in Thailand through the use of Facebook Live.
“I am not afraid of being deported, but I am afraid of being ambushed,” he said.
Am Sam Ath of Cambodian rights group Licadho told RFA that people should be allowed to use social media freely and responsibly and said he does not believe the Thai government would deport the activists at Cambodia’s request.
“A democratic country must respect freedom of expression and constructive criticism,” he said.

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036

A conservation centre in Siem Reap province has started tagging several lesser adjutants (Leptoptilos javanicus), and potentially other large rehabilitated birds suitable for release.
Srey Mom, a Cambodian conservationist at the Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCB) based in Kbal Spean Phnom Kulen National Park, Siem Reap said ACCB has started tagging several lesser adjutant to be released soon as some have already been released to their natural habitat.
“Before the release, all animals have been checked again and again to make sure that all of them can survive by their own in their natural habitat,” she explained.
Before the release, some animals have to put wing tags for their respective identification purposes, she continued, pointing out that the wing tags have black numeric sequences which are easy to read with binoculars, data, and photo from sighting to help the team with post-release monitoring and provide more information about the behaviour of the animal.
In 2021, seven lesser adjutants have been released, one of them had a wing tag, Ms. Christel Griffioen, Country Director of ACCB told by email.
“There are six more lesser adjutants that are suitable for release later this year, four will be fitted with a wing tag,” said Ms. Griffioen. “Before the release, previously we bred lesser adjutants and Asian woollyneck (Ciconia episcopus) at ACCB and those offspring have been released.”
The ACCB currently houses approximately 1,000 individuals belonging to about 45 species of mammals, reptiles and birds native to Cambodia. Roughly 90 percent of the individuals at ACCB belong to species classified as threatened by the IUCN.
In 2020, conservationists voiced their concerns over the decline of the lesser adjutant population as there were about 3,000 of the large wading birds remaining in the world (about 800 in Cambodia).
Lesser adjutant is a large wading bird in the stork family with an upright stance, a bare head and neck without a pendant pouch. It has a length of 87–93 cm, weighs from 4 to 5.71 kg and stands about 110–120 cm in tall.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Press